Clubbing of the Fingers in Heroin Addiction: [Letter]

Abstract

What appears to happen in this modern epidemic is that repeated (three to five times daily) intravenous heroin injections produce chronic obstructive phlebitis of the arm veins, resulting in edema, cyanosis, and thickening of the skin of the hand and lower arm, plus clubbing of the fingers. Heroin clubbing should be an easily detectable diagnostic sign, quickly confirmed by inspection for "track marks" and phlebitis of the arms.